Dunnington said in Britain, for example, pilots had to sit regular medical tests and assessments and balloons were checked after every 100 hours of flight. He said Egypt had a similar system but that it was "somewhat less independently supervised."

How have Egyptian authorities reacted to the crash?

Egypt's Civil Aviation Agency has stopped all ballooning in the country since Tuesday's accident. But Dunnington said a blanket ban didn't solve the problem.

"That kind of knee jerk reaction is symptomatic of the way such problems are approached," he said. In Britain, he added, the authorities would look at a particular set of circumstances rather than shutting down everything.